Originally the vampires turned out to be actually sentient and smart and that mannequin was a trap laid out for Neville, but due to executive meddling they thought the ending where it showed them to be sentient and Neville living was too confusing to the audience so they forced a change.

Also in the novel nerville wasn't black and the woman was also one the vampire mutant people which she explains to him when she knocks him out that her people are now able to be in the sun light for a few extend hours before it can harm them. Furthermore, her people are afraid of nerville since he's killing in search of a cure but the woman says she's not afraid of him. Which she then gives him pills to kill himself so he won't feel pain after his death and so in his last minutes he looks at the crowd of vampire people in his jail cell and slowly shallows the pills and he then says in his mind. I'm the last of my kind as a new race of beings will take over, I'll only be a forgot memory of the past. A tale for I am legend.

Actually, I think the point of the mannequins being moved is that the creatures were getting smarter and picking up will smith's tricks.
Other words- they watched him do it the first time, so they copied him.

The original ending of the movie properly (and correctly) showed that the creatures were intelligent, more like vampires, knew how to speak, and had created their own society. The idea of that scene is that Will Smith's character didn't know how intelligent they were when he set that other trap for them earlier in the movie. But the creatures watched what he did and used the same method against him. They used the manikin to draw him out, like bait. And as far as he knew, there was no way that the manikin could have moved without him moving them.

The book that this movie is based on had the correct ending, which explained their intelligence. In fact, the original ending is the whole reason why the story is called "I am Legend." I liked the movie, but I was really disappointed that they changed the ending to one more expected by popular culture.

No you're not dumb, you are correct. Remember how the "zombies" (they're actually not quite zombies in this movie, less so in the book) were standing under the building/archway thing with the mutated attack dogs (that were collared and chained btw, just showing that they are decently intelligent), waiting for the sun to set so that they could attack him while he was hanging there?

They set it up for him because earlier in the movie, he set a trap for them.

They are definitely closer to vampires than zombies, but I don't think they ever explicitly say if the creatures are one or the other in the movie or the book.

I'm not sure if the creatures can spread the virus themselves or not. In the movie, they make it clear that the infection first spread like a normal disease's pandemic. I know Will Smith's character was never infected, but he was immune anyway.

In the book, they're referred to as "dark seekers", seeing as they can't survive in the light. Also, they aren't zombies or vampires, as they are not undead. They're still living humans, infected with a virus that messed with their genetic code. For those who don't know, the virus was caused from the doctor's cure for cancer.

Oh wait, I remember how it works now. Will Smith's character says in one of his audio log - things towards the beginning that humans were getting infected by the virus that had become airborne. Then he said that animals were unable to contract it from the air, only by direct contact. So that's why the dog was infected once it was bitten by the infected dogs.

So I guess you were right that it could be spread by the creatures themselves, but since a person would potentially be infected once they took a breath in that city, they would turn (or die) before ever being bitten.

I think you either mistyped your comment or got the film wrong as it was the mutant/zombie/vampires that moved the manikins as their own trap. Which he fell for and ended up hung upside down until sunset when they can come out.

Yeah that is the the feeling I got from it as well since that also cements in the they are smarter than he thought theme that they ended up going with. I mean I know he was freaking out but I never even thought the "he's going nuts and forgot thing" was supposed to be implied.

The (not) funny thing is, I Am Legend is a novel about GODDAMN VAMPIRES. Even if it sets some of the bases of the survival horror, it's not about zombies like most of modern, chain-produced survival horrors . And the girl plays the guy, hard. The ending is a great twist, and the story has a great existencial reflexion behind.
But what do you get if Hollywood puts their filthy hands on some major literature? A ******** sugarcoated unoriginal action zombie movie.

Probably because society today prefers to use their eyes rather than their brain? explosions, shooting and chase scenes are would be seen as alot better by the general population than 'existencial reflexion' i also don't see why you took the time to make this rage comment. Who's it aimed at, me? because i've read the book. And the film was also about zombies, not vampires.

Are you a Hollywood producer? Did you pay to watch the movie? It wasn't aimed at you specifically, I don't see why you would be taking it personally.
"And the film was also about zombies, not vampires." - "also" implies that more than one thing is such, and here only one thing is about zombies.